Pioneer Square Timescape

clock of real and geological time

We have always been interested in the abstract and seemingly fluid notions surrounding the structure and perceptions of time. In this unrealized proposal for an installation in Pioneer Square was developed as an multi-layered experiential investigation that questions our notions of simple linear demarkation of time. While it certainly does not directly touch upon more complex quantum notions of time, engagement is meant to complicate one’s perceptions. Present time is indicated down to the second for the casual passer by with the timepiece synchronized to advance the clock 1/16” eastward along Jackson Street each day. (“Now” is marked at the Klondike Museum Building) This movement of time is marked by a light beam projected onto a engraved stainless steel timeline ruler embedded into the sidewalk. People returning after weeks or months could register its movement over time. Markers annotating significant historical events would be placed in the opposite direction (history) along the timeline (and added as events occur). Through one’s “real time” experience along Jackson Street, time becomes a multi-dimensional experience that magnifies one’s perceptions about time as one moves along the street. For example, the implosion of the King Dome would be a few steps away, Denny party’s arrival at Alki is about a block away, discovery of the new world by Columbus is marked beyond the Alaskan Way viaduct and upon reaching the sound the timescape jumps exponentially—through viewfinders one locates the Duwamish head signifying a mud slide from Mt. Rainier that buried people in the Kent valley approximately 2000 years ago and the last ice age 20,000 years ago is marked by distant Bainbridge Island.

The Jackson Street timescape would give visitors a varied perception about their now in relation to the vast expanse of time in the merging of time and timelessness simultaneously as one traverses past and future in the current moment.